


Broken Together

by JanecShannon



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Gen, John and Mary were best friends in the army, John's army days, Post Reichenbach, So much angst, Suicidal Thoughts, marriage pact, very vague ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 05:38:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/807903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanecShannon/pseuds/JanecShannon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were best friends years ago but they drifted apart. In the wake of tragedy, they find each other again. </p><p>"We're both broken," she says, "Why not be broken together?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Together

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, just a quick trigger warning. There are some very vague (they're more implied than anything) mentions of suicidal thoughts. Really, it's only like one sentence. But I figured I should warn you.

They'd made one of those ridiculous married by forty pacts back when she was a nurse and he a doctor at Camp Bastion. Back before he'd put in for a transfer to the front lines. Back before she'd met Mark. Back when forty seemed so far away. 

A mythical age they'd never reach.

Probably they'd be too old for children by then but they'd be advanced enough in the ranks to settle down a bit. Get a house, grow old and crotchety.

They joked about how they'd end up eighty year old adrenaline junkies, sky diving and mountain climbing in their retirement. And when they got too old and their bodies betrayed them... They'd get to lead a quiet life with someone who'd understand it was never what either of them really wanted. 

But Dr. John Watson did eventually transfer to the frontlines.

And Nurse Mary Morstan married Mark Wittler.

And the Dynamic Duo of Camp Bastion fell out of touch.

A patient attacked her a year later and she was sent home. A year older but decades wiser. The plans of youth do not always hold true with age and she raised two children. A son and a daughter. Mark never quite forgives her for naming their son after her old army pal.

A decade and a half later, a sniper bullet steals John's military career and he is invalided to a tiny beige bedsit where his army days haunt his sleep and his gun haunts his days. He has to fight back sob every time he wakes. Not because of nightmares but because the world itself is a nightmare far worse than anything his mind could ever conjure up for him.

And then there is Sherlock. And even though John's fortieth birthday is approaching he doesn't give the fifteen year old pact a moment of thought because he has Sherlock. And Sherlock is brilliant and they probably won't make it to fifty but when they go they'll go out together and the years in between will be _glorious_.

...Until he's thirty-seven and mourning. More broken than he's ever been before. Because they didn't go out together. Sherlock took that from him and left him too a world where too many people have seemingly made it their sole purpose in life to make sure he can't follow the mad brunette. 

And then she's there, at his door, looking just as broken as he feels. She knows its been a long time but she didn't know who else to... _Cancer_ , she says. _He left me when I told him, like it was nothing. Like fifteen years means nothing_ , and _He took the kids, Hamish is too young to even understand what's going on._

So John puts his arm around her and calls Mark a heartless bastard and blind fool and a few other choice names that pull a startled laugh out of Mary. 

_We're both broken_ , she says, _why not be broken together?_

A month later, he takes her to Sherlock's grave.

**Author's Note:**

> Right, so this got stuck in my head and wouldn't go away. It's intended to be more of two people rekindling an old friendship than any sort of instant rekindling of a relationship and I hope that came across. 
> 
> Constructive Criticism is welcome. Honestly. I'm not completely pleased with this but if I don't just publish it then I'm going to keep tweaking it forever and it will never go out >.


End file.
